Catie: I guess you could say it's been a while.

But can I just note that I have been very busy.

Number 1.) Knitting.

Number 2.) Cooking some stuff.

Number 3.) Failing at all baking endeavors.

Number 4.) Knitting more things I want to have.

Number 5.) Organizing the kitchen, living room and bedroom intermittently.

Number 6.) Cleaning out and setting up the spare room to become a makeshift pantry. (All right, I haven't exactly done this yet, but soon I will be very busy doing it, so it is my excuse for next time.)

See how busy I have been?

Answer: So very.

Yes, you are right.

Things I have knit:

1. a pair of slipper clogs for The Benjamin.

2. a pair of socks for me.

3. ...half of another pair of socks.  also for me.

4. still MORE on my red, cabled cowl scarf and no, it is not done yet, believe me, I will be the first to tell you when that bane of my very existence is finally DONE.

5. half a pair of one slipper clog for me.  I got bored.  yes, yes, I got bored.  probably because, for this pair, I didn't have a husband waiting for slippers.

6. a red and blue elephant.

7. a red and blue octopus.

8. a happy little fox.

9: three weird looking balls.

10. a felted handle for a basket/makeshift drawer that contains kitchen utensils and lives under a riser on the kitchen table/makeshift counter top.

11. a little felted bag with a button hole that hangs on a hook near the sink and is filled with every rubber band in existence.  It's a cute bag and I needed those rubber bands off my counter.  I'd normally put them in a drawer, but Koreans don't like drawers, and we only have two, both housed in our wardrobe.  So, there is a ledge along the back of the kitchen sink, under the window, and I kept them there in a little box.  But they kept collecting odd food particles as well as always getting tangled up in the green robot man that I found under the fridge a few months ago who managed to make his way into the rubber band box.  Anyway, it was just TOO much.  So, I knit a wall-bag (and I coined the term "wall-bag").  Mostly in public, while out and about.  Korean women always think I'm knitting hats.  Always.  They point at my hands and they hit their heads saying all kinds of things in Korean and then, in Korean, I say "No, no." (since that is just about the extent of my second language skills) and then I say, "Bag.  Is bag." (like if I speak in broken English they'll be better able to understand) and I make the motion that seems to be Korean speak for "shopping bag", which means moving my hands from a cupping gesture, outward and up to sort of outline the bottom of a bag.  Then they look at me like I've just lost my mind because who makes shopping bags that small and.. then they give me a nod and pat their head one more time, saying the word for "hat".  Just making sure I'm really looney.  And I smile and they leave and anyway, now it's done.  So, they don't think I'm crazy for making tiny shopping bags, just for wearing birkenstocks in the winter and for leaving the house in a very light drizzle without an umbrella.

13. a calorimetry.  it turned out waaay big, but I wear it anyway.

14. I just-just finished my first pair of endpaper mitts yesterday.  it may possibly be true that I have been lusting after them in an unnaturally disturbing sort of way.  possibly.  but, now they are finished.

I think those are pretty much all my recent projects.  I am now working on a second pair of endpaper mitts (they were the funnest thing I've made in a long time), the half-done sock and NOT the bane of my existence.  Oh, and also my 1/4 finished clogs, which are cute colors.  red-orange and pale turquoise.

It is late now and the light is bad, so I do not have pictures for you, but I am planning on taking some of, you know, things.

We didn't cook much in December. It was busy and crazy and we just ended up eating out a lot.  To the complete detriment of our health.  But, through many fits of digestive illness, we have again begun to cook at home.  This time, I've been paying a lot more attention to our healthier American food options like whole wheat spaghetti and fresh frozen green beans instead of canned, etc...  Eating American in Korea can be difficult (although I'd venture to say we're quite adept at this point), but eating healthy American is even more difficult.  However, there is a lot of brown rice, some frozen alternatives to canned vegetables, yummy yogurts (waaay too many yogurts), soy products, awesome tofu and the best produce and eggs anywhere.  Now I just need to figure out which greens are what so we can make salads.  None of them make sense to me and all of them look like the weeds you pull out of your garden.  Some of them taste like them, too, and that is gross.

Today, we found some good frozen vegetables at Costco.  This is nice only because the combination includes broccoli and cauliflower, two vegetables we either can't find or refuse to eat (cauliflower = nowhere to be found, broccoli = tastes like the smell of new tires mixed with moldy navel oranges).  We eat lots of zucchini and I think I may have found beets the other day which could be interesting.  I've been craving a chocolate beet cake.

Anyway.  I have to go... you know, do something.  Like I usually do.

- catie

Catie: WARNING!

If you ever get your nose pierced, make note:

Do not wash your face.  It is hazardous.  At some point during the cleansing process, you may lose your nose ring in the sink.  This will not easily be felt by you, or your nose as you are scrubbing vigorously, and so you may not notice for 45 minutes, even an hour.  And then, as you frantically attempt to return the ring to it's proper place in your nostril, you will undoubtedly be forced to punch it through a layer of skin which has already closed, even though it has been only an hour, making a gross popping sound.  This will not only hurt you, but REALLY gross you out when it starts bleeding profusely.  Ultimately, it could easily lead to infection and ANGER with yourself, or, possibly, even the sink.

This TERRIBLE chain of events may or may not have happened to me and my nose ring.

Regardless, take heed!!! I know since I found out that this dire set of circumstances could be close at hand, I will NEVER wash my face again!

- catie

Ben: Watching Fringe

So Catie and I have been slacking a little bit on the blog (sorry everybody). Part of the reason (and only part!) is that we started watching a show called Fringe (thank you Natalie). Fringe is sort of the X-Files meets Lost with more of an R rating instead of the X-Files P-13 content. It is pretty addictive. Some of the stuff is a little graphic (it makes the X-Files look pretty tame) and the main female lead's character is incredibly one-dimensional, but the crazy scientist and his son are hilarious. The scientist, Walter Bishop, is the best reason to watch the show. He is constantly craving random foods, wanting to conduct dubious tests on unwitting human subjects, and just generally being a stereotypical, but awesome mad scientist. The plot is typical conspiracy fare. Something called "the Pattern" is causing crazy things to happen and "Fringe Division" is the FBI task for charged with figuring out what is happening. There is also a massive international science corporation called, creatively enough, Massive Dynamic. Massive Dynamic may or may not be good/very evil, it is a mystery. The show is another J.J. Abrams project, and like Lost, you get the feeling that he either has an awesome  plan for how every ties together, or he is just as lost as his viewers. Since Fringe is only in its second season, this has not yet become a liability like it has in Lost. I think most people have lost patience with the prospect of ever getting straight answers in Lost. Fringe is just starting so it feels okay to be confused and not like someone is jerking your chain. Anyways, flaws aside, it is fun to watch. It often feels like the X-Files at its best (think 3rd-5 season) and makes me feel nostalgic for old X-Files episodes. There is strong, if not amazing acting, but the characters that are good are really good. Since we can download just about anything nearly instantly we've watched through the entire first season and are now keeping up with the second season as it airs. This as resulted in some time being taken away from blogging, but we promise we will try to get on here more now that we have caught up with the show. Just be glad we caught it in the middle of the second season! If it had been in, say the fifth, you might not have heard from us until after Christmas (or more realistically, after Thanksgiving).

Ben: Law School Personal Statements

Let me just preface this post by saying that it really doesn't have much to do with Korea, except for the fact that I am in Korea writing it.  In the long ordeal of applying for law school, there are many hopes necessary to jump through, including:

• Law School Application


• LSAT Score


• Law School Data Assembly Report


• Resume


• Letters of Recommendation


• And finally, a 2-3 page Personal Statement

Much like the personal statements many of us wrote for undergraduate, law school personal statements are the type of vague, non-bragging bragging. In all honesty, the personal statement is proving to be the most difficult component of the application process for me. While the LSAT was tedious to study for, it was also fairly undemanding. Test memorization I can do, personal statements are suspiciously similar to creative writing, or perhaps non-fiction fiction. This is about as far from my area of writing strength and comfort as it is possible to get. Reports, essays, and boring papers I can handle with ease, but there is something about creative writing that freezes my blood and makes my brain go blank. Hence the reason I am writing here instead of my personal statement!